Creative Mentors

09/05/2013

I am visiting my folks in Falmouth, Maine where I grew up. My mom has just gotten a new knee and am around to keep the pieces together. All around the house are many of my old lampshades. It's fun to see the progress of my work. Yes, our work does get better the longer we stay with it. But some of my early work was also really beautiful. I'll post a few of them as well as a few of my early fiber art.

Okay, here's one of the first! Sort of sweet in a folky way. I did cut and pierced shades for about 10 years until my good friend Judy Pascal urged me to try making fabric shades with her vintage fabrics. Thank goodness for Judy! Most lampshade makers that continue making the cut shades end up with carpel tunnel, not to mention lower back pain. Ironically I studied textiles in college... sometimes it just takes longer to end where we are suppose to be.
Here's a sweet embroidery I did before my lampshades. Mom dated it on the back; I think it was 1975. Embroideries are still my favorite to work with in my lampshades.
This must be around 1976. I had a great weaving teacher, Rosalie Smith at North Yarmouth Academy. I hope Rosalie knows how much us crafty ones loved having her share her art with us. Not many high school kids had this level of teaching.

A little more tapestry weaving...
Detail of an early cut lampshade. I loved making up my own patterns from fabric designs or vintage prints.
Here is the full shot. My shade on a Flower Brook Pottery Lamp Base.
More cut and pierced. This one was very popular in it's day. Oh, how easy it was to screw up. Any little fleck of coffee or pen mark or slip of the #11 exacto blade and it was done for!!!
This one has seen better days!detail of shade. These are all hand cut. Many cut and pierced shades these days are die cut, ie cut but machine. You can tell the difference if the cuts look flat they are die cut. If they are hand cut they are cut on an angle. Big difference!!! I ventured into it once, but just didn't want to sacrifice the look.a variation on the paneled shade. These were pretty time consuming as I recall, but I liked the overall pattern.

This is the grand finale of my lampshade history tour! This is the crown jewel! I love loved this pattern. A HUGE challenge. I found the pattern in a victorian pattern book. It was the size of a postage stamp; I blew it up and reworked it to fit the shade. Tons of work. Only did a few of these!!! Of course Mom got one!

Today. Favorite fabric/embroidery/coronation work Lampshade. This is a shade I did last summer for Mom. Love this fabric!

detail of the beautiful vintage textile work.

I guess we never know paths our life will go or where it will continue. At least I don't and kind of like it that way. It's like antiquing or flea marketing--- you never know what treasure might be around the corner or WHO might walk into your shop! Speaking of shops, I am missing my dear shop while I'm here in Maine, but a little sabbatical will only spur the creativity for foliage. My hands are really happy to take a break from work.

05/22/2011

I often ask myself, Can we take our business to "the next level" and stay a small business at the same time? I was in Saratoga Springs today joining 30 creative women at Schuyler Pond Antiques and Shop. The editor of Where Women Create, Jo Packman shared her story and generously gave the group of woman many positive suggestions to promote and grow or start their business. I'd say there was a wide variety of women in various stages of their businesses. Also included in the event was Jen O' Connor of Earth Angels and some of the artists she represents. Here they are after our breakfast talk.

I have only recently seen Jo's magazine, Where Women Create. It reminds me of Mary Englbreight's magazine that is no longer around. She highlights many creative, talented women showing off their work as well as their work spaces and homes. I look forward to receiving more issues of the magazine. Jo was impressively down to earth and frank about the industry and her trials of her busy career. This is a busy lady! Love it. She is a DOER!!! yipee. My gut instinct is she is what she is! Certainly something rare and wonderful that I have yet to see in the publishing world, granted I have only been in it since 2008, in it's hairy/scariest of times.

Jo is all about helping women promote and grow with their businesses. It is a strong time for women bloggers and creative businesses. Don't you feel it growing each year? Think of how many great blogs there are on the web. She mentioned as corporate jobs have diminished it has been an opening for small companies to come into the forefront! yay. Jo and Nancy Soriano, past editor of Country Living, are hosting The Creative Connection this fall, Sept.15-17, 2011 in St. Paul, MN. Lots of speakers, workshops, etc are planned for 3 days. I'd highly recommend this if you are trying to start a business or need inspiration. Sounds like great pitch sessions, blogging, publishing, etc. Not sure if I'll make it unless they need one more workshop teacher; that would be fun.

Back to my first querry. Can we continue to take our businesses to the next level and continue to stay small? I say, YES. Today after the brunch, I wandered into Saratoga to a few of my favorite shops and then on to the Big Box stores for "stuff" like a new fan, new grill, sheets, light bulbs... all that stuff I can't find here in Pawlet. I needed some pillows for my kitchen chairs, I looked everywhere. Yuck. all so ugly, nothing great, nothing creative, nothing very well made either. Which got me thinking about my quest to keep my shop small. I think it is the best time to specialize in Lampshade Making or all the other creative possibilties. The world is mass produced. Yuck, fine for my fan, sheets and grill, but not for all the special things that make our house our own.

Sure, I'll never get super rich keeping my business small, but that is not my end goal. I am however, very,very busy. Even during the downturn/worst of the ressesion I stayed super busy. More than ever we have need for handmade treasures to satisfy our need to slow down this fast paced world of crappy made stuff arriving in container ships made who knows where. (I just read we are suppose to keep cynicism out of our blogs.... opps.) Equally, we get such satisfaction going to meet our neighbors at our farmers market and buy beautiful veggies grown right around the corner. Local, Local, Local!

I contend that yes, we can grow to the next level and keep our businesses small.

I'm pretty good at marketing, scribbling here on my blog, I enjoy meeting people and especially love my customers that come back lampshade after lampshade, but I have had to push myself beyond my comfort zone many a time. I still have lots to learn about my computer and making my blog look better (I can't figure out to make 4 pictures in a box... note to self to goggle this), I force myself to learn a few new things each week and yes, the knowledge really does accumilate. I used to be shy and still can be in new situations, but never in my own shop! In the beginning of my business, I forced myself to do craft shows to help me get over being so shy. Now my friends look at me lunar when I tell them I was shy... we grow to the next level. Working on my Lampshade Lady book was way, way out of my comfort zone, but a fantastic challenge. Who knows what the next big challenge will be, but right now it's getting a special order out in time to arrive for a photo shoot in Brooklyn, NY, cleaning up the piles of fabric in my shop for Memorial Day Weekend and finishing up painting the other side of my shop porch (I did the other side this am at 7:30 before going to the brunch)....

xoxo,

judy

Come on up for Memorial Day VT. Open Studio Tour (I'm not on the tour this year, but I'll be open right through the weekend. Sat. Sun and Monday.)

01/01/2011

It was a funny week with our holidays on Saturday. No one likes to loose a retail Saturday. Today was such a weird one. I had all intentions of going into work. I'd made lunch, went for a walk and dropped my stuff buy the shop first before my walk. After the walk I went into my shop and quickly decided no one would be around today and beelined for the door. Making Turkey Pot Pies won out today!

This time of year I know I am tired; I am ready for a break and recharge. I usually dread the arrival of January. It's always a slow time of year, not many orders or customers coming in the door. What do I do in January??? good question. It's time to rethink the year. A good time to blog, organized my email list for a newsletter and actually do a newsletter. It's time to work on projects I didn't have time to do all year and to go through my fabrics and pull a few favorites out to use.

It's a time to build my inventory back, which can be easier said than done. It is HARD to build back your inventory without customers coming in the door. Really hard. But years of experience tells me, hang in there and they will come back. The economy is building back slowly. I'm sure if your have a little business like mine you know exactly what I am talking about. I have planned a February Workshop which is officially full, but room in April.

It's time to send out a few more books to see if I can get a little more good press for The Lampshade Lady Book... I love my book but it is such a little niche, which is good and bad. I am tired of always being in the OTHER catagory. Sewing, Knitting, Quilting, Jewlery, etc and Other.... Who likes to be Other. Even The Vermont Crafts Council, Other..... what about Lighting??? If you have a blog, I'd love to have you write about my book.

Interest in Lampshades is building slowly. I have loved hearing from many of you. It has been fun to see your progress and hear of you starting little businesses just like mine or even many grander plans. Hey there's lots of room out there for lighting improvement. Maybe we'll even get lampshade and lighting out of the OTHER catogory!!!!

I think often about what it is that gave me the confidence to start my own business. I always knew I wanted my own business even though I did not know what it would be. When I moved down to Pawlet I had 2 women friends that had their own businesses. They were both a little older than me but here they were wonderful role models right before my eyes. Hard workers, smart, great designers and women! One was Susan Sargent, a tapestry weaver. The other was Poppy Gall, owner of Ladies and Ewe Ski Hat Company. Both Poppy and Susan were doing it! Working with color, great designs and making a go of it. Poppy later went on to be a co-founder of Isis Ski Wear and Susan went on to start Susan Sargent Designs. I was in awe of both of them and so thankful they came into my life a JUST the right time.

I have other good girl friends that have been instrumental in my world. My good friend, Dawn Smith is the founder of Friends in Adoption in Middletown Springs, VT. Dawn found she had a gift and pursued it to the max. She has helped hundreds of families adopt a child of their own, sometimes several kids. My other good friend and inspiration is Jackie Lappen. When I first met Jackie she headed up The Mettowee Valley Land Trust. Jackie and Dawn are BRAVE ladies. They aren't afraid or timid gals! A real go for it spirit and determination. I'm not sure I'm as brave as they are, but they have certainly been great models for me.

What comes around goes around. I am now in the positon of mentoring others. I love to see people taking a chance and starting a new business. It takes time and guts but the rewards can be worth the effort. Never has there been a better time than to start a new business. I love teaching my workshops and helping others learn my craft. I give them everything I've got, almost. Everyone leaves with a great base to start a business or perhaps just a creative day.

Who are your role models? Do you inspire others to push past their safety zone? Do you encourage others by the work you do? I bet you do and you don't realize it. I don't have any grand plans; I'm pretty happy with where I'm at. I cruise down my hill into town; 1 1/2 miles to my shop. A tank of gas can last me quite a while!!! A trip here and there can make coming home to Pawlet look even better. It's a beautiful place to live.

okay enough rattling on. sorry no pictures. my computer is in the shop.... and words will have to do for now.